Drop tests have become a bit of a cultural necessity in the mobile tech kingdom, and another interesting test has been uploaded to YouTube for all to enjoy. This one comes from SquareTrade, the biggest provider of third-party warranties in the land. They obviously have some interest in tests like these considering they’ll be the ones replacing broken tablets for many of you, and what they’ve done here is interesting.
SquareTrade pitted the Nexus 7 up against the iPad Mini and the iPad 3 in what it calls a “drop and dunk” test. The drop test is actually performed using its “drop bot,” a machine that drops each device at the exact same angles and velocities. It’s pretty neat, actually, considering many people struggle to get devices to drop exactly the same in conventional drop tests.
In that portion of the trials the Nexus 7 seemed to have a considerable advantage over the two iPad devices. The first drop only saw a corner of the slab crack, though it couldn’t best the iPad Mini which only suffered some nicks on the edges. The iPad 3 was completely out of it.
The second drop — a face-down planche, if you will — proved devastating for both iPad devices, and while the Nexus 7 wasn’t completely in the clear its cracks were only minimal and didn’t do much to hamper the experience.
Finally, the “dunk” test had all 3 tablets submerged in water for the same amount of time to see how they stood up against water damage. None of the tablets seemed to malfunction, though SquareTrade erroneously suggest the Nexus 7 was unresponsive. Had they waited until it fully rebooted we would have a more accurate account of what ended up happening, but since it was turning on we assume things were OK.
(source)